The European Central Bank once again offered cheap three-year loans to banks in the euro region, which quickly soaked up 529.5 billion euros ($712.2 billion) in funding. Analysts had expected the amount to total 470 billion euros.

Christian Schulz, an economist at Berenberg Bank in London, was quoted saying, “After the downgrade it was clear this was going to happen. The ECB isn’t going to make an exception to its rule on not accepting defaulted collateral ...”

Greece on Friday took the next step in a second bailout package after Parliament passed a law Thursday that requires all its bondholders to accept losses once a certain percentage of creditors have agreed.

Although Mohamed El-Erian had long advocated for aid to troubled Europe (with an obvious interest in mind), he wants strong strings attached to any lending, especially when it comes to the International Monetary Fund.

Advocates for lower taxes are sure to take the recent poor revenue results in the U.K., which last year raised its top rate on high income earners from 40% to 50%, as a demonstration of the ineffectiveness of a tax-the-rich policy.

Altering its forecast on the state of the European economy in 2012, the European Commission said that the euro area would shrink instead of expanding, largely because of Spain and Italy. The two countries are expected to be in for some difficult times as they cope with various economic woes.

Europe’s banks are tallying up the losses from Greek sovereign debt, and the picture is not a pretty one. Euro losses in the billions are taking a toll on earnings and banks are posting heavy hits in the midst of a need to find additional capital to meet new banking...

Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher said Thursday the U.S. economy is getting better and repeated his view that further quantitative easing, also known as QE3, was not needed from the central bank.